Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

My computer is back and healthy! During my time away, I painted this new series called Connected. I have a huge stack of postcards left over from the Art 4 People show that I gesso primed and painted over. Six in the series are available in my Etsy shop at www.livefunky.etsy.com. The rest are on www.ebay.com - you can find them by searching "Torrant".

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Hey everybody. I just thought I'd let you all know our computer got a virus and we won't be getting it back for up to two weeks. :( WAHHHHH!!! I'll be coming to the library for my allotted one hour a day so I'll be able to check email, Etsy, etc. but won't be posting anything new until I get our computer back. Paint on!

My vintage shop has returned with a collection of vintage printmaking blocks that I got several years ago. These are so cool and I think they'd be perfect for assemblage sculptures. I've found the photography element of selling vintage is really enjoyable. This photo of the letter E is my favorite so far. I think it's a work of art unto itself!

Spring is whispering in my ear that it is almost here and I am so happy and excited as my tulips and hyacinth peak out of the earth with their beautiful green limbs. I was sick the last two weeks and I'm finally coming out of it just in time for some great weather. I'm looking forward to going to tag sales to hunt for vintage treasures this summer. My friend from LA used to call going to tag sales "saling" and he said it with the most hilarious drawl - imagine Matthew McConaughey saying "Let's go saling bros!". I've got to admit, tag sales in Santa Cruz were awesome but around here we've got different "stuff" than out west - often with much more antiquity. The real old antiques are my aunt's expertise - I like to focus on the 1950's-70's. The mystery of saling is addictive, you never know what you will discover and it's just such a fun way to spend an afternoon. Cruising around town going from house to house, being part of the whole experience of picking over other people's stuff. One family down the road from my parent's house have a tag sale every year and they have SO MUCH STUFF!! I always wonder what their house looks like inside - I imagine it filled wall to wall with belongings.

Anyway, lots to look forward to in the coming weeks and months. Happy almost Spring everybody!

There are tons of great pictures from the World of Imagination Vol. 2 exhibit on APW Gallery's website here. http://apwarts.com/galleryhomephoto.html In the picture above, I can see my paintings! It's blurry but here's a zoomed in view - I can't wait to go see the show in person!

Yesterday I finished up these very different paintings. The first was controlled and simple - focusing on the most interesting color combinations and arrangement of limited forms. The second is like a buffet of techniques, colors, marks, shapes, layers. It seems I am always balancing these two extremes when I paint - often simultaneously. I go wild on one piece, set it aside and slow way down with another, then put that aside just when I'm ready to get a little crazy again.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

As you may already know, "Work with what you've got" has been my 2009 motto. Today I attacked an overflowing large tupperware bin of art. This was my "art to save" bin because I can never throw anything out. Unfinished paintings, random sketches and pieces I could never sell because of personal connection. I went through and took out a few to put on eBay (for crazy low starting bids HERE ), created a pile of surfaces ready to be added to or painted over, and cut up little sketches and funky (but not really WOW) paintings for thank you notes. I like recycling art for thank you notes instead of buying pre made cards or even printing cards.

Here's an example of one of my to-be thank you notes. I think I'll take this little sketch and glue it to a funky piece of paper.

My "art to save" bin has been cut down to 50% and I have a bunch of surfaces to work on tomorrow. Work with what ya got is workin' for me!

Friday, March 06, 2009

I'm sorry I can't be at the opening of the World of Imagination Vol. 2 exhibit at APW Gallery tonight, but I will surely be seeing it at some point this month. I'm hoping for a sunny Wednesday (Rob's day off) for us to drive down to the city and make a whole day of it.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

As Spring approaches, my heart skips a beat thinking of my garden coming alive again. The first daffodils and hyacinth (oh how I love the color and smell of hyacinth!). Then the tall and mighty irises blast up in full bloom and the bare rose bushes have promising buds. Blink your eyes and the whole gang is there, alive with color and thriving under the sun. I love flowers and through the years I have painted them in various approaches of style. Around 2001 I got into a good groove painting flowers in an abstract, bold poppy way. I'd like to get into a new groove with my beloved flowers, so I started this series.

I'm on a mission to go through all of my old printed photographs, organize them and put them in photo albums. I've got boxes and boxes of them, and of course they've all mixed together and it's a big old mountain of a headache. I am not the most efficient person in the world. An efficient person would have tossed out the duds in each set of photographs as he or she got them. Not I. I've lugged the boxes of years of pictures, good ones, bad ones and total duds from apartment to apartment, to my home to various storage locations in my home. All the while carefully moving several pounds of useless paper mixed in with the good ones. Crazy right? Ah the life of the pack rat. I'm really working on that right now though. Purging/donating anything I haven't used in six months has been a general rule. Obviously some things are sentimental and you'll never throw them out or give them away but those are rare items. Decluttering my home is decluttering my mind and I'm hooked on it now because it feels so much better. I've already got a very small house (that has five people and a big dog occupying it three days out of the week). Piles of STUFF have got to go! Getting rid of the extra useless stuff has opened my eyes to all the GREAT stuff I love and love to use. You know, like "Oh look, there's that sweater I haven't seen for months!" or "woo hoo! Here's the match to my favorite slippers!". I have a carload of perfectly good stuff that's going to Goodwill and that feels good too.

So back to the photos. I've learned that you need to get all of the junk out of the way before you have any hope of organizing, so I'm going through my photos and taking out all of the blacked out, blurry, repetitive and boring shots - everything that I'm not going to put in a photo album. These make great surfaces for painting and mixed media. I love the glossy finish and how it contrasts with a more matte finish of paint. It's eco friendly and it means I can work with what I've got instead of rushing out to the art supply shop for more.

Ocean was a photo I took several years ago in Florida. If you look closely (or click on the image for a larger view) you'll see that wider yellow band is actually the waves coming onto shore.